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Monday, June 3, 2013

"THANK YOU"

Hello Hello!

Biking to yellow field by our house~Kristianstad

This week flewwww by. It was so fun to get so many letters in the mail this week and you should have seen me when I saw the John Gorka message signed to ME. I flipped haha. I literally was so happy. It is so good to hear that you are all doing so well, I think about you and talk about you EVERY SINGLE day.

This week was a frustrating week with lessons, for example: Yesterday we had seven set lessons planned and one by one they didn't show up. But besides some hard days, of course there are always little miracles. We had a cool experience with a guy named Jeff. It was after a lesson that had ended early, we were waiting at the bus stop and Jeff was standing by us and we didn't really pay attention to him and didn't think to talk to him because he was smoking. He looked at us and said "how's the work going?" and we said that it was okay.. He went on telling us how he remembered the missionaries coming over to his house when he was little and he loved it when they would come. We talked to him the whole bus ride and we are meeting with him on Tuesday! It was so cool how he contacted us and also a good reminder to talk to ALL and to not judge because he is probably more prepared than others that we would have talked to.

This week in my personal study I read over my notes from the MTC from Bishop Causse who is also speaking to us this weekend at our Nordic conference- (the whole mission is coming together in Stockholm! The prophet is not coming anymore because of his wives death but he is still speaking to Sweden over satellite and Elder Ballard is coming. It will be awesome). Anyways, he was speaking about the moment when we get to meet Christ and I read this line that said "We will want to look into Christ's eyes when we meet him and say "thank you" and tell him that we did our best." Reading that made me think about those words THANK YOU and what those words would mean when we say them to Christ. I would have so much to thank him for... Thank you for saving me, for giving me HOPE, for being my example, for walking a long and lonely path so that I didn't have to walk mine alone. THANK YOU for giving me courage and strength to keep going and to have a determination to share my faith in you with so many who are lost and need hope. I then thought about the words "I did my best." When I thought about those words I realized that I am not doing my best because there are so many things that I am not perfect or good at, so I sat there and thought of what I could improve on and of course the list is never ending. And that is when I realized and fully comprehended Christs plan for me and for each of us. He never asked us to be perfect. He just wants us to do our best continually and to try harder each day. He just wants us to be the best that WE can BE! And that, I can do. I can do my best. I can share the gospel to a world that is lost. I can have faith in Christ and his loving and true atonement that brings peace to SO many wondering souls. It is so loving of him to do that for us because we are all so imperfect and make so many mistakes. And yet, he still loves us perfectly. This is what gives me HOPE and reminds me of the truthfulness of this gospel. We are so blessed. I am so blessed.

My town!

The best parts of each week are the little things. I have found so much joy in reading the Doctrine and Covenants this week- I read so much about charity and how it is the true love of christ and so I decided to focus my Christ Attribute for the month of June on charity and love. It is so hard to do all of the time but it is amazing, the love that I have felt for this work and for all of the people here in Sweden as I focus all of my attention on them and caring for them. I found joy in the encouraging words from President and Sister Newell at our Mission Tour this past week. They are perfect examples of humble and loving people. I found joy in jumping on the tramp and drawing smurf characters with Noah (Sara Sandelin's brother who has autism).

My street...

I found joy in teaching a lesson in Swedish about the Plan of Salvation and on temple work and having it all "click" for me. I found joy in riding our bikes to the yellow fields that are all over in the spring time and are so beautiful and happy. And I found joy in meeting a new investigator at the bus stop who is so prepared to hear of Christ's plan for us.

I am loving this work and I am so grateful for L I F E. I hope you have the best week ever.